Asking Too Much
by brocko18
Summary: This is a story about Temari taking control of the Sand family and buying a puppy. But how will Gaara react? TOTAL GAARA OOCNESS! BEWARE!


OK, this is an interesting little story that I popped out of nowhere, but I hope you still like it. Just so you know, This story involves TOTAL GAARA OOCNESS. so, don't read it if you don't like that. anyway, i no own, you no sue.

* * *

Gaara stared down at the steaming bowl of oatmeal placed before him only moments ago by his older sister, Temari. She looked at him with a large grin on her face while he sat with a grimace as the brown substance before him bubbled and popped.

"Dig in!" Temari said to her redheaded brother. Gaara wearily dipped a spoon into the questionable oatmeal his sister had prepared. He put on a false smile and shoved the content of the spoon into his mouth, swallowing quickly before his taste buds could experience it. Suddenly his eyes bulged. Not only did he forget to blow on it, so it scorched his esophagus, but even the slightest amount of Temari's horrible cooking was enough to kill even the Kazekage of Sunagakure.

"Mmmmmm…" he said as he felt the lump of food sink to his stomach. He was sure he felt it thud as it hit the bottom.

"That's good stuff," Gaara said with a quivering tone.

"Great!" said his overexcited sister, "now I'll go make a bowl for Kankuro!"

With that she sped back into the kitchen to concoct some "food" for her other brother, Kankuro. Gaara's wavering expressions now turned to utter disgust as he snatched the bowl from the table and searched for the nearest houseplant to feed it to. He let out an "ugh" and returned the bowl to the table. Footsteps could now be heard approaching the dining room, so Gaara sat back in his chair and acted as though he had just shoveled the entire bowl of goop into his mouth.

Temari stepped in holding two bowls: one for Kankuro, and God knows what the other one was for. The fact that Temari was able to make this oatmeal so quickly was an indication of how bad her cooking really was. As she passed him, Gaara slumped back and let out a fake sigh of relief, so as to fool his sister.

"For Kankuro," she said lifting one of the bowls and turning to walk up the stairs. Gaara laughed at the thought of the slop being forced upon his other older sibling. He was just enjoying sitting in his chair when Temari's head popped out from the top of the stairway.

"Oh don't forget, Gaara," she said to him at an odd angle, "we're going to the pet store today to get that puppy."

Gaara froze and his eyes widened at this, though it was unseen by Temari as his back was to her.

* * *

The three sand sibling ninja lived only with one another now as their father had been killed a few years back in the war between Konohagakure, and the allied Suna, and Otogakure. He had been their only living parent, and the Kazekage.

Since then, Temari, being the oldest sibling, has attempted to take control of the family, as seen in her cooking. Her latest "project" to get the family moving again was buying a puppy for the house. Kankuro seemed to welcome the idea of a fuzzy little companion that would romp around the house. Gaara, on the other hand, was somewhat terrified of it.

His siblings had once taken notice to this irreconcilable fear of dogs when a small dachshund had approached Gaara in the street about a year ago, and began to lick him to death. Gaara's fear had overcome him, and he assumed the fetal position right there on the sidewalk.

His sister wanted him to get over this fear because after all, he was the most powerful ninja in the entire village and it reflected poorly on the village to say the least.

Ten minutes after Temari had gone up to feed Kankuro, they both came downstairs. Temari had an enormous grin on her face as she carried now two empty bowls with her. Kankuro looked as though he just walked in on Gaara doing his "business" as he had last week.

"Gaara, I'm so proud of Kankuro," Temari exclaimed, "he ate two whole bowlfuls of my oatmeal. Are you sure you don't want anymore?" she asked her brother.

"Oh no," he replied, "I couldn't possibly eat another bite."

"Alright then," she said as she went off to the kitchen while Kankuro sat beside Gaara at the table. Gaara looked at him as he just stared blankly at the table in front of him.

"She…she just wouldn't leave," Kankuro said weakly.

"Well, why did you eat both bowls then?" Gaara asked. Kankuro still did not turn his head.

"I…I tried to say 'no', but she's…so persuasive…" Kankuro cut off. Gaara winced at the thought of that food being forced upon him as it had been. Temari now reappeared in the dining room in her usual ninja attire and her fan.

"Ready to go you two?" she asked them. Gaara and Kankuro exchanged dispassionate looks and set off to retrieve their own ninja clothing.

* * *

The group departed several minutes later and set off to the only pet store in Sunagakure. The wind was exceptionally powerful this day and it whipped up sand in the faces of the trio. Gaara, however, erected his wall of sand to shield his face, and Temari simply blew it away with her fan. Kankuro put up his hood and continued on.

When they finally reached the shop, Temari was the first to enter. She looked around at all the animals in the shop that were resting in their separate containers.

Gaara walked in moments later following Kankuro, and the moment the animals spotted him, they immediately began barking and growling madly and uncontrollably as if Gaara was death himself. The three of them walked up to the counter where a blonde woman with an abnormally large grin on her face, greeted them with a sharp and painfully cheerful, "Hello!"

"Uh, hi there," said Temari hesitantly, "we're looking for the puppies. Can you direct us to them?" The psychotic cashier cocked her head slightly with her bulging eyes and large grin still glued to her face.

"This way!" she said in a rather loud tone as she lead them behind the counter.

"Awesome!" she screamed abruptly. The three sand siblings exchanged nervous glances and reluctantly followed the girl. They were led to a back room where all the puppies were held. They, too, began barking wildly at the sight of Gaara.

"I don't know what's wrong with them," said the cashier, "they're usually not like this." Gaara at this point was in tears and shaking as he tightly clenched his sister's shoulders.

"Gaara, it's okay, said Temari soothingly, "we'll be out soon. Just pick a puppy that you want." Gaara mustered up enough courage to point to the only puppy not barking its head off. It was a small shiba-inu that was just staring up at him with wide, green eyes.

"You want that one?" the cashier asked. Gaara nodded hesitantly.

"Awesome!" she said, although it was barely audible over the sounds of the dogs.

"We'll take it then," said Temari, "and afterwards we can go to McDonald's. Do you want an apple pie?" Gaara nodded, though he was still upset.

"Okay then, we'll get you an apple pie," Temari said.

They finally returned home and for the first time in a long time, Gaara and Kankuro looked full of actual food. Gaara forgot to blow on his pie, though, and again, scorched his throat. They had their new puppy on a leash an allowed Gaara to walk him home to strengthen a bond between the two. The impressive force of the small canine yanked Gaara forward several times. It was now sitting in the middle of the floor of their living room and giving Gaara the same look it had given him at the shop.

Then, out of the blue, the dog tackled Gaara to the floor in a rage of licking and yipping. Gaara's arms were flailing wildly and he was screaming.

"Get him off of me! Ah!" he yelled.

* * *

It was the middle of summer and a 4-year old Gaara was walking with his father and siblings along the streets of Sunagakure. They were en route to an important delegation meeting for the Kazekage, Gaara's father. Unfortunately, the powerful ninja was forced to drag his children along with him. Temari was holding her father and Kankuro's hands while Gaara walked solitary beside them.

They had almost reached their destination when suddenly a small cat came bolting around the corner up ahead. Just moments later, a very large Doberman came around the corner with it's leash still attached to it's collar, but with no owner attached to the other end.

The cat ran as fast as its short, dumpy legs could carry it right in Gaara's direction with the dog trailing close behind. Gaara had a frightened expression on his face and was left completely immobilized as the cat raced straight between his legs. His attention, however, was fixed on the large dog now bounding in enormous strides toward him. Gaara was helpless as the dog leapt in the air and landed on him, pinning him to the pavement below.

It began to bark loudly in Gaara's face and he could do nothing except flail his arms and cry. His family stood off to the side and watched. They were wondering why his sand hadn't come to his protection in this instance. The only explanation his father could fathom was that the sand didn't view the dog as a threat to Gaara's safety. At last after a few minutes of pure horror, the dog's owner finally reached them and removed her hound.

* * *

Since that moment, Gaara had been completely traumatized. The mere sight of a dog would cause his body to tense up and his breathing to grow shallow.

One can only imagine Gaara's inner terror as the new member of their family mauled him. Temari and Kankuro chuckled off to the side at the new Kazekage being terrified by a pup.

"Aww, Gaara he likes you," Temari said to him as he gasped for air between his shrieks of horror. Kankuro was now becoming very embarrassed and decided to seclude himself to his room so he could add some new trinkets to Crow that he picked up while they were out. Temari bid him farewell and turned her attention back to the flailing Gaara before her. He looked as though he was a turtle that had fallen on its back and couldn't get back up.

"So what are you going to name the little guy?" she asked him as she picked up the harmless pup from the struggling Gaara. Gaara pulled himself to his feet and attempted to catch his breath.

"I don't know," he said in between his heavy breathing. He eyed the small puppy that was now soaking Temari's face in saliva. It had golden brown fur all over with the exception of a small white spot of fur on its chest.

"How about cupcake?" Gaara inquired. He gave his sister the reasoning for the name, and she liked it. Henceforth, the dog was known as "cupcake."

* * *

It had been a week now and Gaara was growing more accustom to having the new canine around the house. He was still though, very much afraid of it tearing off his face in the middle of the night when he wasn't looking. He would also let out a small yelp if he came across the pup unexpectedly in the house. He was, however, glad that he had something besides the now dead houseplants to feed Temari's cooking to.

However, one day Gaara was watching television alone in the living room when Cupcake decided to prepare a sneak lick attack for its new master. It leapt from a high-up shelf on the wall (God knows how he got there) and flew unexpectedly at Gaara.

At this point, Gaara's instincts commandeered his actions and, sensing something attempting to attack him from behind, he lashed out in a whirlwind of bone-crushing sand. The pup landed with a thud on the floor with its arms mangled over its limp body. Gaara's eyes began to water at the sight of his dead puppy and his thought began to go wild.

_Oh god, Temari's gonna murder me, _he thought to himself.

He walked over to the corpse of his puppy and gently lifted up its head. Its eyes were wide open in shock, and this appearance forced even more tears into Gaara's soft eyes. He tried to gingerly close the puppy's eyes with his hand and they shut with his gentle pull.

All of a sudden, soft footsteps could be heard approaching the room, and Gaara frantically searched for a place to hide his dead mutt, but it fruitless as there was no time to clean up the crimson stains that littered the floor. Temari now entered the room and froze on the spot.

"Gaara?" she said cautiously when she spotted the abundant stains. Gaara gave no response.

"What happened here?" she asked. Gaara said nothing, but instead, procured his puppy from behind his back. Temari gazed at it for a second and then let her head hand slightly, letting out a sigh as she did so.

"Oh Gaara," she said, "I was afraid this would happen. Here, give him to me" She motioned toward herself and Gaara complied, handing her the small body. She just stared at the small thing in her arms for a minute before she spoke again.

"We'll give it a proper burial," she said to Gaara slowly, "but we have to clean up this mess first. I'll go grab a bucket and something to scrub the carpet with" With that, she exited the room to return with the said cleaning materials.

* * *

Gaara, Kankuro and Temari were again at the pet store in the attempt to buy Gaara yet another dog. Again he was greeted with a fury of animal sounds in his ears from every direction imaginable. The group as a whole was greeted with the overly perky smile of the cashier. The group, despite being high-ranking ninja, was still extremely cautious as they approached her.

"Put your money in your front pockets," Temari whispered to her brothers.

"Hi!" said the young woman in front of them, "how can I help you cute little familiar faces?" she asked them.

"Uh, yeah," Temari spoke up, "we need a new puppy. The one we got last week had a little, uh, accident." The smile faded from the young girl's face.

"Oh, That's too bad. You can come back and take a look."

She led them again to the back room where the dogs began to bark their heads off at the sight of Gaara, although, thanks to Cupcake, Gaara dealt with it with a little more composure this time. Another shiba-inu had arrived to replace the first one. As soon as Temari's eyes drifted to it, she spoke up.

"We'll take that one!" she blurted out. The cashier's unnerving smile now returned to her face.

"Awesome!" she said as she unlocked the cage to the dog.

* * *

Their newly paid-for puppy was running in a circuitous motion now around their living room. What they had fathomed was the reason for this was the fact that its short, curly tail was always just barely out of reach. The three siblings watched in total amusement as the playful little creature ran non-stop in the same motion. This dog seemed to contain the same boundless energy that their old one had.

"Perhaps we shouldn't name this one just for the time being," Temari said, "you know, just in case." Kankuro and Gaara both nodded their heads in agreement. They all thought it would be best not to get too attached to this pup.

And sure enough, their premonition had become reality two weeks later. Gaara was preparing the puppy's dinner alone in the kitchen when the dog, by now given the name, Mickey, strolled in to watch. Gaara gave it a quick glance when it sat down next to him giving him a piercing, yet harmless look. Then after a minute he realized the dog had not stopped staring at him.

Gaara now turned to face Mickey and stared right back at him with his cold eyes. The puppy merely threw a small yip at him and it made Gaara cringe and fling his body backward against the counter on which he was working.

Gaara by this time was trembling while the puppy stared at him and was panting incessantly. It then gave another loud bark and Gaara, relying solely on fear, threw a massive amount of sand at the dog which entered its mouth right as it barked and killed it from the inside.

The family again had a proper burial for the dog in the backyard right beside Cupcake's grave. Gaara at this point was sobbing over the loss of yet another dog, but Temari spoke softly to him to try and ease the pain.

"We can get another one, okay?" she said soothingly to Gaara. Although she commiserated with her brother, she could not come up with a better solution.

* * *

By this time, the bloodstains were becoming increasingly difficult to remove from the floor. Temari had scrubbed for hours until her hands, themselves, bled, producing more floor-staining liquid.

After a long cleaning session, she approached Gaara who was in the backyard, attempting to bring about some sort of improvement in his awful tai-jutsu.

"Are you ready to go back to the pet store?" she asked him. She still wore her cleaning attire that consisted of a long, white apron, yellow, rubber gloves, and, if the situation called for it which it did many times, a pair of goggles. At first glance of Temari's awkward appearance, Gaara snorted as he tried to hold back a large fit of laughter.

"Uh, sure, but are you?" he asked her incredulously. She gave him a deathly glare in return.

"I just need to change," she said in a tone that Gaara recognized immediately as her way of saying she was to be left alone. So Gaara retreated slowly.

* * *

They arrived at the pet store about an hour later again, with the usual deafening greeting from the inhabitants. Thankfully, the psychotic cashier had the day off and her replacement was a young man with shoulder-length blonde hair. He was wearing a pinkish jacket loosely over his tucked-in white dress shirt and tight black pants. He was resting his head in his hand and was staring out the window with a blank expression on his face.

"Uh, excuse me, sir?" Temari said to the man. He turned to face the trio with his wondrously bright, blue eyes that seemed to be trapped in a sea of sadness that now consumed his face.

""We're here to get a dog. Could you take us to them?" Temari continued. The man said nothing as he lethargically lifted his body from the chair he was sitting in. He drifted to the back where the puppies were always held. The group noticed that, again, another shiba-inu had replaced it's predecessor. This one, however, was different from the last two occupants of that cage. This one just laid in its bed, resting its head on its paws and gazing absent-mindedly at nothing.

"That one looks good," said Kankuro, pointing to the dog.

"Yeah," Temari chimed in, "it doesn't seem as energetic as the last two. That would be better, don't you think, Gaara?" Without even waiting for him to respond, though he did open his mouth, Temari spoke again.

"We'll take that one." When the cashier spoke, he was not even heard due to his soft tone, and the deafening roar surrounding them. What he said was either, "alright then," or "a mighty hen."

* * *

This time, when they brought the new puppy into what became the waiting area of their house, it merely laid down at their feet, gave a large yawn, and took a nap.

"Well that's boring," Kankuro stated as if he expected it to jump through flaming hoops on a unicycle. Again, treaded the stairs to his room leaving Temari and Gaara alone with the soporific dog.

"Well," Temari said, "I'm gonna go do those dishes, okay?" Gaara nodded, but did not take his eyes off of the puppy.

_Maybe this one won't be so bad, _Gaara thought as Temari left the room. Gaara was now completely fixated on the dog. It was very peaceful as it slept.

* * *

After a few days, Sandy the dog was beginning to irritate the members of the household in which it lived, especially Temari. Sandy would only lie around all day just getting in the way of Temari's cleaning and cooking, or lack thereof. The family figured that the dog was depressed, and none of them were sure of what to do, so they just tried the old saying of, "ignorance is bliss."

One day, however, Sandy's depression had taken a turn for the worst. Gaara returned home from an important delegation meeting and removed his jacket as he stepped inside. According to a note left on a nearby table, Temari and Kankuro were out on an assassination mission, leaving Gaara and Sandy alone together.

Gaara strode into the kitchen and poured himself some Cheerio's. He peered at the newspaper laying on the counter next to him and skimmed the headline on the front page which read: Local Pet Shop Worker Commits Suicide. He poured the milk in his cereal and after he put it away in the fridge, something in the corner caught his eye. He turned to see Sandy, face-down in her water bowl, completely motionless.

* * *

Temari announced her and Kankuro's arrival home as she opened the door. She found Gaara, his back to her, in the living room. He was sitting alone on the couch facing the Television.

"Hey Gaara," she said to him, "where's Sandy?"

Gaara monotonously replied with a wave of his hand.

"Out in the backyard," he said solemnly.

So Temari went out to the backyard, and there, parallel to Mickey and Cupcake's graves, was a freshly dug one with a headstone labeled "Sandy."

As soon as she saw what was there, Temari flew back inside.

"Gaara, I'm so sorry!" she called out to him.

"It's alright," he replied when she entered, "I'm over it anyway. I found a new pet." He held up a small, white fuzzball.

"Temari, meet Mittens, the cat!"


End file.
